1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to provisioning network elements, such as but not limited to network elements associated with supporting operations of a cable television system.
2. Background Art
The provisioning of a network element generally includes providing the network element with instructions suitable for use in supporting its interaction with an associated network. This generally includes specifying a network address and operational parameters for the network element. One or both of these pieces of information may be included within provisioning instructions used to facilitate the provisioning process, as one having ordinary skill in the art will appreciate.
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a one protocol commonly employed to facilitate provisioning the network elements. DHCP has evolved over the years to include multiple versions, such as but not limited to DHCPv4 and DHCPv6. One problem with the use of DHCP to provision network elements relates to their dependency on these servers to reliably and consistently furnish provisioning instructions.
The problem mainly pertains to the loss or temporary shutdown of the provisioning servers. Provisioning servers may be responsible for provisioning numerous network elements such that the loss or temporary shutdown of one or more of the provisioning servers may interrupt or prohibit the ability of one or more of the network elements to interact with the associated network. This can be problematic if the network element is critical to client needs and/or otherwise important to any number of possible contingent operating conditions.
One method to address this problem relates to mirroring a primary provisioning server with a backup provisioning server, often referred to as an active-passive model. Should the primary server fail, the backup server may be brought online relatively quickly to cover the provisioning associated with the primary server. While effective, this type of redundancy is costly in that the provider must essentially maintain two fully functional provisioning servers in order to support the same number of network elements that could be similarly supported with a single provisioning server. Additionally, this model allows for limited reliability in the form of a single backup server.